SCCN Blogs

Satellite Community Gardens

Monday, 19 October 2020

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M S SWAMINATHAN BOTANICAL GARDEN CAMPUS

SDG Stories on Biodiversity Conservation

Behold an integrated and decentralized Garden for 'RET' (Rare, Endemic and Threatened) trees and plants managed in partnership with Community Conservers or Custodian Farmers. This Garden identifies ex-situ, on-farm and in-situ methods and approach of partnership mode by involving garden managers, farmers and protected area officials which helps maximize biodiversity conservation.

An integration of RET tree species, especially in the coffee plantations promotes new ways of understanding agro- forestry which preserves socio-cultural, culinary and curative diversity.

Region

Wayanad district in Kerala, India

Description

The garden stems from visionary Indian scientist Professor M.S Swaminathan's vision of 'Bio-happiness'- integrating agriculture, nutrition and health, to resolve the increasing pressure on natural habitat in an era of climate change. Such conservation efforts aids in scientific capability dealing with emerging problems, new demands and focus on biofortification for agricultural remedies. The garden is a source of education, training, capacity building and aid numerous practical purposes as culinary diversity, curative diversity and cultural diversity.

Key Results:

The botanical garden currently boasts of 400 individual mature tress for conservation belonging to RET species. An 'Orchadarium' with over 75 species of orchid, a RET Plants Conservatory with over 112 species from the RED data book, a 'Wild Food Species Garden' with over 120 species which signify important food and medicinal possession of the tribal and rural communities of Wayanad. Lastly, it hosts an Ayurvedic garden of over 500 species with the number still counting!

Way forward

The Garden will expand its area to another 100 acres by way of involving 100 custodian farmers in and around the Kalpetta region, essentially for conservation of RET species. The Garden has now around 25 partners in this venture. This networking will be promoted to other locations of Wayanad district and other parts of the Malabar region, and link with the Farmer Gene Banks, Sacred Groves, Agro-forests, and the protected forest areas to maximize biodiversity conservation efforts to address the climate vulnerabilities.

Click here to know more about the initiative!

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SCCN (sccnhub.com) is a network of the educational campuses of universities and colleges for promoting Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). It is one of the flagship projects of TERRE Policy Centre (terrepolicycentre.com), not-for-profit organization.

SCCN is strongly supported by UGC-India and UNESCO-Paris and is UNESCO's knowledge partner. Its digital platform was inaugurated by Hon. Minister Prakash Javadekar in Pune. TERRE has also recently signed an official MOU with Gulf Organization of Research and Development (GORD) at Qatar Science and Technology Park for the initiative of 'Climate Neutral Campus". Campus Sustainability Reports have now been published under SCCN by the universities.